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Klobuchar: ‘I’ll Vote Yes On Debt Bill’

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are expected to vote Monday on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke with WCCO’s Dave Lee about the deal and what it means.

“First of all, the debt ceiling won’t lapse,” she said. “There were so many concerns I heard from all over the state about people’s retirements funds, 401K, the effect on home mortgages because interest rates would have gone up.”

Secondly, Klobuchar said, they have to do some actual debt reduction.

“About $900 billion will be reduced on the debt from various cuts, pretty much across the board,” Klobuchar said. “By the end of Thanksgiving a bi-partisan committee has to come up with some suggested cuts.”

Klobuchar said there has to be an up or down vote on their suggestions. If not — there will be consequences.

“If they don’t get a vote to reduce based on their suggestions, then automatically $1.5 trillion in additional money is going to be reduced. That will be 50 percent domestic spending and 50 percent military spending, excluding veterans,” she said.

Because Minnesota residents had to endure the state government shutdown, Klobuchar said many people were focused on that and not the national debt crisis.

“It was only in the last week that people realized what a serious matter this was to let this debt ceiling lapse,” Klobuchar said. “It would add another one to two trillion to our debt.”

According to Klobuchar, the deal isn’t something she would have written, but she will vote yes because it’s something that has to be done.

~50% of the population may indeed pay little or no income taxes, however the amount one pays in income taxes is, & should be, contigent on their ability to pay; which utlimately comes down to the means they have. Those w/ larger % of disposable income are thus able to & should pay in real figures more, even though if as a % of their income it’s not as much.

Asking those in who live on food stamps as their only source of income (~6 million), those who’re the working illegally & skirt the income taxes altogether as they’re paid in cash, those who are the working poor <$16,000 annually, generally speaking don't have the means to pay income taxes, they're barely holding on as it is. Asking them to pay, would be like offering a meal to a homeless person, but then asking them to pay for it.

So crux, forgive my math, but here is what I have come up with. If we assume a 7% sales tax rate and the people earning under $16,000 spend 50% of their income on taxable items here is what I come up with:
It would take just over 3.5 Billion people to pay that kind of tax. So are you saying in a land of 300 million people in the US 3.5 Billion of those people make less than $16,000 per year. I hope you are seeing the humor here. Your numbers dont add up

your numbers dont’ add up. 1, state taxes rates vary, it’s not 7% nationally, some states are around 10%, & have quite large populations (CA). 2, David mentioned the bottom 1/2 (%50), not explicitly only those at or below $16,000 annually, so you’re neglecting to mention all those who’re just above $16,000 & yet still considered in the bottom 1/2 of the income index.

Another tidbit is that those w/ high levels of wealth typically have capital gains taxes (a form of income tax) that they only pay 15% on. Nothing fair about that.

I dont care if you triple the sales tax it doesnt add up. My 50% was way over as housing, food and clothing are not taxed. We dont have 3.5 Billion people to tax. The reason I used those that make under $16,000 was from Crux claiming those under that amount pay $2 Trillion in sales tax.
Wow, you couldnt see that in my first comments on this? Talk about wearing the Democrat blinders!

I won’t state the bottom 1/2 pays 2 Trillion in taxes, as honestly I don’t know the figures, but to suggest they pay nothinig isnt’ correct either. Depending on where one lives, housing, food, clothing, & other goods/services are taxed & at different rates. There are taxes associated with housing (property taxes) , taxes on transaction, though typically those in poverty don’t own homes & thus don’t pay said tax. It doesn’t matter if there aren’t 3.6 Billion people to tax, as you likely know many people are in the ‘bottom 1/2’ of the income index, still pay taxes, & making just over $16,000 annually. A family of 4 making $49,000 is considred in the bottm 1/2 of the income index, certainly they pay taxes.

David is wrong in that ‘bottom half paid over $2 trillion in taxes and they make less than $16k a year’, when clearly wage earners exist above 16K, yet are still in the bottom 1/2 of the index. I think what he meant to state is that the bottom 1/2 pays that amount, & 16K is generally the poverty line, where they pay nothing in income taxes.

That 50% figure includes children and retired people who don’t work. It’s an intentionally misleading statistic and doesn’t help your argument. What’s a “FAIR SHARE” for a child who doesn’t have a job?

$1,000 is what they get. One cannot ignore that costs of supporting a child, these days they figure from birth to highschool graduation a family can expect to pay ~200,000 in total costs, in everything from clothes, education, healthcare & so on.

IRS Tax Tip 2011-29, February 10, 2011

The Child Tax Credit is an important tax credit that may be worth as much as $1,000 per qualifying child depending upon your income. Here are 10 important facts from the IRS about this credit and how it may benefit your family.

Amount – With the Child Tax Credit, you may be able to reduce your federal income tax by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under the age of 17.

I enjoy the benefits of living in the greatest country in the world. I went to good public schools, got Pell Grants to attent college, enjoy protection by police and firemen, have good roads to drive on, etc. etc. I, for one, am willing to pay my fair share for those things.

You whiners who complain about minor changes to tax rates to make things more fair for everyone…you make me sick. If you dont like it then gtfo.

I would have to agree. I find it annoying that republicans only want to cut things we see. I think they need to focus on things that happen in the background. Notice how they want to cut Social Security and Medicare but do not say anything about the Federal government pension.

When you are telling us about tax hikes you fail to mention when the clinton and bush administrations cut taxes. If we are objective adults we will recognize that times have changed and that we need to repeal these tax cuts so we can get back on track! You could liken this situation to a household that has gotten a great new job but then in 3 years later you get laid off or have to take a pay cut… something has to give!

i am amazed to see that at least one other person has the basics to understand this thanks ztank for showing that there is another person who gets it. now how to we get the rest of these idiot to understand.

@ztank. Yes the money is spent and Congress AUTHORIZED the spending and then put on this disgusting show of not wanting to pay the bills it authorized. I don’t think either the Senate or House should okay this back door deal. The debt ceiling is unconstitutional anyway and the 14th Amendment should be invoked.

Our gutless leader will do no such thing. Invoking the 14th amendment takes courage. He is in over his head and is showing his weakness everyday. I voted for Obama, but never again. He ran on change, but can only talk about it. he has sold out this country to the Republicans who are obviously driving the ship.

Of course she’ll vote yes. Sadly, I don’t think that’s the correct vote……..and it is way too soon to take a vote on this. This Bill should be looked at with a fine tooth comb, and not voted on until it is. There are always loopholes in these Bills.

What do you think? I think it was a plan, yeah……….a plan to scare people into believing this is saving us from defaulting. Maybe, just maybe they could look at what really could be eliminated was the waste that is spent in Washington.

This is a big deal, and should be treated as such…….every plan so far has went down to the wire, and rammed through………..only later to find out details. Now, does that really make sense to you?

Dave Lee, a so called reporter for WCCO, was lavishly praising George W. Bush as a saint during the elections on His morning radio show. Times have shown what a short sighted person Dave Lee is.The Bush administration put this country into economic misery by causing this massive, multi trillion dollar national debt crisis, and allowed Wallstreet to overextend itself, causing the banks to fail. If I were the management at ‘CCO, I would recommend they tell Lee to find a network with more conservative listeners.

Reagan—deregulation of the banks. Remember the Savings and Loan debacle?
Bush I- Tax breaks for Wall Street. Suddenly, if you held a ton of company stock you could sell it tax free. Paulson (Bernanke’s predecessor) did just that with a total savings of 50 million when he took office and had to dump the stock.
Clinton—further deregulation, added derivatives (simple terms ‘gambling”) which led to the tech bubble and collapse
Bush II—the real humdinger! Added credit swaps and further deregulated. Now, anyone could get a loan—from a bank that didn’t care cuz they weren’t gonna hold that loan for long—repackaged into “investment instruments”. Buyers liked the sub-prime packages cuz they paid at a higher interest rate! Delicious.
Obama—knew it all, did nothing! Allows it to continue with his Wall Street hack Timmy. The great Bernanke—hahahaha. Knew all the time and made some big jing.

Yes….Bush went along with the Democrats in the last few years…. and was not BO a Senator in leadership then to? We must have all forgotten that….but one branch of the Government is also in check by the other 2 branches. Remember also….. for the past 2 years… Democrats had all 3 branchs and FAILED the US Citizen by not passing a budget at all. Spending our money out of control. Shame on them. I think we all forget…… for the simple sake in name calling.

Kookie Klobuchump is an idiot who has never had an original thought in her thick skull. She and Fruitloop Franken, who both are in the back pocket of the WH, vote for every progressive “spending spree” O’vomit and the dummyRats stick us with. 2012 ….soooooooooooon and we can hopefully get rid of this empty headed loser!

I love a flat tax. I’m not gonna sit here and try to convince everyone it’s the right thing to do. But we need to let the Bush tax cuts expire people—those taxes benefited the top 1% and Wall Street. I would like it immediately repealed but this will not happen with our gutless leaders. This deal here,that no one wants to sign, still doesn’t provide the solution for our impending downgrade. Let me just say something about this downgrade. It’s gonna be the biggest sham that has ever hit the American people—in our history. S&P knew full well of the financial crisis the entire time it was playing out and just kept doling out triple A ranks on everything from our government to credit swap “instruments.” All S&P is—put it this way—just like an appraiser working for a predatory bank– “rate”(appraise) that house above it’s numbers so we can shaft the homebuyer/re-financer. That’s what S&P is, it’s an opinion. They’re gonna downgrade us. Ha! Says who? Who’s behind this? Think about it!

What goes out, doesn’t come in. We, both rich and poor, spend our disposible cash on products (look at what you’ve bought) that determine how our fortunes will rise or fall. It’s what we buy; the govenment buys things with a lot of our money, true. But it’s mostly spent in the U.S.,right? Those goods and services went and paid income, property taxes, and so on, but the imported ones that you and businesses bought over the internet or out of shipping containers paid none. None except local sales tax. How does a U.S. producer compete with that? Who’s to blame? You can’t be the only fool to pay more. It’s just that the rules didn’t change to match the changed business scene. Change that.